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There’s few things more distasteful than listening to well paid politicians talking about how they deserve a pay hike.

Heck, don’t we all.

One took it a step further around the council table on Wednesday, saying that if they didn’t get the cost of living increase, well, gee whiz, that would essentially be a pay decrease.

Welcome to the real world guys.

That little mathematical gem came from Capital Coun. David Cherneshenko.

As if that wasn’t enough, he continued.

“This is a tough job. We’re not overpaid. We’re well paid,” he said.

You think?

And now a raise?

Shouldn’t voters get some sort of say in that?

What was especially appalling was the debate on whether councillors should be allowed to opt out of the raise for this term.

Bay Coun. Mark Taylor moved a motion that would have allowed councillors to reject the raise, something that’s important to him because he made a commitment during the election (as did Watson) not to accept a pay raise.

Shouldn’t Taylor be allowed to keep his promise?

Seems some councillors were running scared, afraid their constituents might try to hold their feet to the fire and urge them to refuse the raise as some of their colleagues want to do.

So they did everything they could to insist it be a level playing field where no one would be allowed to opt out of the hike.

Taylor tried to make it clear his motion to allow him to get out of receiving the raise was no reflection on anyone around the council table.

“I certainly have a very personal understanding hat everyone works very hard. I simply want to establish the opportunity for personal choice. I’m not saying I don’t believe councillors aren’t worth every dime they are paid, because I do. I just want to allow the flexibility to provide for your own choice when it comes to matter of finance,” he said at the council meeting.

Taylor’s motion failed, 15-6.

Despite some posturing, the raise also passed.

Some like Cumberland Coun. Peter Clark, said he would donate his raise, somewhere around $950 to charity.

In making that pronouncement, Clark made a somewhat bizarre speech about how he hadn’t been consulted on the raise, didn’t believe anyone had, and that somehow “the family that prays together, stays together, we should either all be in or all be out.”

Taylor said once the raise, which is tied in with the cost of living, is determined, he’ll write a cheque back to the city.

You can blame this mess on Mayor Jim Watson, who came to power in part based on this promise of a wage freeze for this term, then saw the light, and decided his councillors were hard working politicians and he didn’t want to set their salaries back for too long with a freeze.

He said he made a mistake in making the promise, and it would be wrong to dig in his heels simply to keep his work.

Agree to disagree.

Watson isn’t a newcomer to politics. He knows all about pay hikes, politicians debating their own salaries, keeping the salaries at a level to attract a good variety of politicians and of course importance of keeping your word.

This wasn’t a sudden revelation, Watson simply seeing the light.

Council should have kept with Watson’s commitment to freeze salaries, then vote at the end of their term on a salary increase for the councillors elected next time around.

Voting on something which you benefit directly from, and telling the world you deserve can’t be worth the money.

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Former Ottawa mayor and NCC board member
Jackie Holzman has lashed out at Mayor Jim
Watson, questioning why he didn’t intervene
earlier
on the recommendation of Tunney’s Pasture as
the
preferred site for a new Civic hospital.

Former Ottawa mayor and NCC board member Jackie Holzman has lashed out at Mayor Jim Watson, questioning why he didn't intervene earlier on the recommendation of Tunney's Pasture as the preferred site for a new Civic hospital.